The Death of Josephine Chakasim

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EARLY LIFE:

Josephine Chakasim was from Moosonee, located conscionable southbound of Hudson Bay, successful Northern Ontario. She came from a ample household that included her parents, Joseph and Hannah Chakasim, and her 7 siblings: Anastasia, John, Remi, Theresa, Mary Louise, Peter and Mike.

At the clip of her death, Josephine was conscionable 17 years old.

DEATH:

Josephine was past seen connected the nighttime of April 21, 1977. She’d went retired for the nighttime and ne'er returned home.

Dates alteration arsenic to erstwhile the 17-year-old’s assemblage was discovered. Some sources assertion it was the adjacent day, portion others authorities it was 2 days after. A huntsman came crossed the teenager’s assemblage successful the water, adjacent the Ontario Northland railway tracks.

An autopsy was performed connected Josephine’s body, with the coroner determining she’d died of exposure. They besides noted that determination was nary grounds of trauma. Satisfied with these findings, the Criminal Investigation Branch of the Ontario Provincial Police closed the lawsuit little than a twelvemonth later.

RENEWED INVESTIGATION:

Over 40 years later, successful October 2017, Detective Inspector Gilles Deparatto announced that the OPP was reviewing aged cases involving Indigenous people. Among them was Josephine’s death. A reappraisal of the forensic pathology was ordered, and the results came backmost inconclusive, meaning homicide couldn’t beryllium ruled out.

The past update from the OPP stated that a lawsuit manager was going to reappraisal DNA and immoderate persons of interest.

Josephine’s household alleges grounds was overlooked, including bruises and cuts connected the 17-year-old’s body, due to the fact that she was Indigenous. They’d questioned the coroner’s findings from the beginning, with Rachel Chakasim telling the media anterior to her decease successful 2022 that determination was “so overmuch grounds on the tracks”. This included her sister’s cigaret lighter and glasses, which were recovered connected the other broadside of the railway tracks, indicating a imaginable struggle.

Rachel besides didn’t judge Josephine died of exposure, and claimed that an researcher had antecedently told her that her sister had trauma accordant with being deed successful the caput with a yet-to-be-identified weapon. There are besides marks connected her body.